Friday, August 21, 2015

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Voter suppression today

Leonardo suggests the unfairness in race relations when he introduces the idea that, "The experience of people of color is akin to walking down the street having your money taken from your pocket." (Leonardo, 2004)

Though we can literally see this happen with the poll tax, any voter suppression is likely to disproportionately affect African Americans. Blatant attempts such as we have seen take more than money from someone's pocket. By denying citizens a vote, their political capitol is being stolen and it still happens today. Watch the video to find out how voter I.D. laws are preventing some people from voting.

1965 Alabama Literacy Test

Before you start keep in mind that I only included 35 questions.  The original test has 68.  You could also be given as little as 10 minutes to complete it.

Pay to play

In the South, two big obstacles to voting up until the passage of the Voting rights act were poll taxes and tests.  Poll taxes were a fee everyone had to pay in order to vote.  
Though the fee was applied to everyone, according to Brooker (2012), it would have been around $25-$50 in today's money.  That would have been enough to make voting too expensive for poor whites and many blacks.  Even if you were an African American who could easily afford the money, in many places you had the extra obstacle of...

Segragation isn't just for schools

Throughout this whirlwind semester we have been focused on ableism, disability, and exclusion.  It's gotten me thinking how we will only have these kids for a brief time and then eventually they go out into the world.

I feel I have a realistic attitude towards race.  I agree with Reid and Knight when they say, "What serves to perpetuate oppression, then, are widespread conceptions and attitudes about race, class, gender, and disability and the attendant ideologies that shape these systems of (dis)advantage". (Reid & Knight, 2006)

As part of my research over this summer I read up on voter suppression.  It makes sense that this pattern of segregation that starts in school continues outside the classroom.  Since one of the best ways to oppress a people is to take away their voice, I thought it would be a good idea to look at how African Americans have been denied the vote in the past.

Though we are working hard to promote inclusion, discrimination is still prevalent.  We will also take a look at how voter suppression manifests itself today.

Mary Cowhey has this to say about voting, "...thousands of people fought for the right to vote for years and...many died in that struggle because the vote is powerful and because exercising it en masse does threaten the status quo." (Cowhey, 2006)

With that, I invite you to travel back in time and see how that right was sometimes based on your ability to pay...